After a rainy start, the 'Dogs conclude the Topy Cup in seventh place.
Sept. 11, 2010
FRESNO, Calif. -
The 28th annual Topy Cup has come to an end in Tanagura, Japan. After a rainy start, the Fresno State men's golf team came in seventh out of the ten teams that participated.
"This was a solid start to the year," said head coach Mike Watney. "I saw a lot of good things from the Bulldogs. We definitely found some things to work on in preparation for our next tournament but my expectations for the year have gone up a lot after this first outing."
The start of the Topy Cup was completely rained out due to Tropical Storm Malou. The tournament was originally scheduled to begin Thursday morning, but was postponed until Friday morning. After playing 36 holes the `Dogs were in third place at 11 under par. The Topy Cup concluded this morning with the `Dogs coming in seventh place after playing the last 18 holes.
The leading Japanese school, Tohoku Fukushi, shattered the all-time 28 year scoring record by shooting 41 under par. The final standings for the 2010 Topy Cup were:
Tohoku Fukushi- 823
Texas A&M- 835
Nihon Univ.- 848
Arizona State- 850
Chuogakuin Univ- 859
Arizona- 861
Fresno State- 862
Nagoya Univ of Commerce- 874
Nagasaki International- 901
Kwansei Gakuin Univ.- 941
Yoshinori Fujimoto from TFU won the Topy Cup for the third time in a row. He shot 17 under par to win by four strokes over Jordan Russell of Texas A&M. The final scores for the Bulldogs were; 8th Bhavik Patel (67-70-71 = 208), 24th Michael Gideon (74-71-72 = 217), 24th Brian Sunker (70-69-78 = 217), 42nd Bryan Hogan (72-75-76 = 223), and 56th Nate Jessup (82-72-84 = 238).
"I think Bhavik will have an All-American year," said Watney. "Michael Gideon and Brian Sunker have stepped it up since last year. Bryan Hogan struggled at the tournament, but he will be back. Nate Jessup might be our Dustin Johnson. He's long and a bit wild but wow does he have potential. Plus, we have a lot of good players at home who are itching to get into the lineup."
"We are Your Team" The men's golf team will be back in action on September 20-21 at the UW Husky Invitational in Washington.
